Yes, Your Vote Matters #getyourasstothepoll

Presidential elections are poignant pieces of living history, but far too many people either don’t have the insight to understand this, or apathy has reared her ugly head. I normally do not get involved in politics online, especially social media, as it is a distraught circus-like rabbit hole of indignant attitude and vitriolic speech. But today I have to say my piece and it was inspired by comment on social media:

I will not vote today. (Edited)

I lost it. I lost my sangfroid, my silence, my patience, all of my yoga-like practices that have kept me scrolling through the folderol of the hoi polloi. I would even stay quiet to a seditious comment of contempt over this blatant display of apathy.

Although ratified in 1870, the 15th Amendment which allowed African-American men the right to vote was not truly recognized until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It took 100 years for our black brothers and sisters to constitutionally gain the right to vote. #getyourasstothepoll

It took fifty years, and the blood, sweat, and tears of hundreds of women, such as Susan B. Anthony, to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1920 to allow women the right to vote. #getyourasstothepoll

The 24th Amendment prohibits the revocation of voting rights due to the non-payment of a poll tax or any other tax in 1962. Economic status no longer mattered when choosing your leader. #getyourasstothepoll

It took the Vietnam War, and thousands of young men being killed, for the 26th Amendment to be ratified which prohibits the denial of the right of US citizens, eighteen years of age or older, to vote on account of age. #getyourasstothepoll

You complain that your vote doesn’t matter because of the traditional status of the state you live in. You complain that your vote doesn’t matter because you hate all of the candidates. You complain that your vote doesn’t matter because the election is “rigged.”

Really? You know who your vote matters to – to the hundreds of thousands of people who have died without a voice to be heard. If you have no respect for what’s going on today, how about for our American ancestors? How about for the citizens of Saudi Arabia, Vatican City, North Korea, Syria who are either explicitly barred from voting, or their election is actually rigged? #getyourasstothepoll

I don’t care who you vote for, seriously – I made my choice, and your choice is your right, but to not vote at all is exactly what creates the cycle of bad candidates. Write in Big Bird for all I care, but show that you care enough for your future, for your childrens’ futures, to actually make a statement. Heck, if 100% of people voted in Big Bird as our next President, then you know what, you stand by Big Bird because he was a choice. A choice that thousands…no, millions, of people never had.